China Life #15
August 23, 2026
This one will be more of a “Chanada” update, as we got to spend a wonderful summer back home. It is hard to believe that I have not updated this blog since April.
The end of the school year last spring was both a whirlwind and a slog. After our fabulous Chinese road trip, we finished off the last 7 weeks of the school year. It was full of exams, activities and social outings/goodbye parties while at the same time the temperature started to go back up so we were getting pretty hot and sweaty. We were also moving to a new apartment which was still occupied by the outgoing teachers, so there were a lot of logistics to figure out with regards to packing, moving, delivering, storing and selling our stuff. It was really quite unbelievable how we showed up in Guangzhou with 2 suitcases each less than a year ago, and suddenly we had a whole house full of things to sort through. I’ll be honest, it was not fun. It has certainly made me want to buy less this year.
Leaving here was chaotic, to say the least. We were ecstatic to have been offered the apartment of the secondary principal (Martin, and his teacher-wife, Vanessa), which was my first choice of apartments. I had really pushed and advocated to get this place. Martin and Vanessa were very accommodating as regards to us needing to store our stuff for the summer, however they were also short on space because they have lived all over the world and had brought all of their furniture from everywhere with them. They had put the landlord’s furniture in storage for 3 years, but that was brought back at the end of June. So they had double furniture, as well as our belongings. They offered us one bedroom for storage and we arranged a few days where we could have access to the new apartment to deliver our stuff. Although it is located on the same compound as our previous place, the walk between buildings is about 350 metres and involves elevators at both ends. When it is 35 degrees and full humidity outside (often pouring rain), that walk with arms full of boxes and bags seemed extra-long. We did a lot of sweating. The school offered to send workers over to help with the moving of bigger items for a few hours one day, but they showed up with a small car and only delivered to the road outside of the new building, so we still had to shuttle big loads inside, into the elevator, out of the elevator, and manoeuvre it through the full apartment and into the one bedroom. It is hard to describe just how full that bedroom was when we finally left; the door could not close and it was literally floor to ceiling full. There was just a wall of stuff precariously balanced within an inch of the door frame. But we did it. I was quite proud.
Our last half-day of school was June 18th. I had booked our summer flights months earlier, and we were to depart early on June 19th. Because Kieran was bringing all of his stuff, including his bike and hockey sticks, I was concerned about getting to the airport in the wee hours of the morning and had booked us a hotel near the airport so that we would not be stressed out at the last minute.
After our staff end-of-year luncheon on the 18th, I came home as early as I could so that we could move the very last of our belongings out of our old apartment, empty the fridge, hand in the keys, and get to the airport hotel. When I got to our old apartment to complete these tasks, there was already a crew of workers there dismantling my bed and removing the living room furniture. I texted the school and my landlord to ask what was happening, and the landlord said that he was preparing to do some maintenance on his place. “But we haven’t even left yet! I am still packing!” I wrote. He said, “OK, then just tell them to come back later” was his response. (We always text, as everything has to be translated.) I obviously could not explain to the workers what was going on, so I said, “No… YOU tell them!” He responded with “OK”— but as I was emptying the fridge and doing last-minute checks in drawers and cupboards, there was still a crew of workers coming and going and maneuvering around the luggage we had piled by the door. We did our last few runs of stuff to Martin and Vanessa’s place in the rain and somehow managed to all get to the airport. Kieran was with his bike and some other luggage in a “Oualala” (cargo van), and Noémie and I were in a taxi.
This is really where the story begins.
I can’t remember if I have written about Thomas before, but to put it mildly, Thomas is THE most incompetent “travel agent” in the world. Period. Bar none. He is beyond useless— he is detrimental to travellers. Absolutely every teacher I know who has had flights booked through Thomas has a terrible story about him, and I am no exception. So here it goes. The story about Thomas the un-travel agent.
Thomas is our school-designated “travel agent”.
Part of our overseas contracts includes annual flights home for employees and dependents.
Yes, we can book and pay for these flights on our own, but we cannot then apply for reimbursement until after the flights have been completed. We must have original receipts and boarding passes, and fit within a specific budget depending on our continent of origin. Then, if we are lucky, we will get reimbursed within a couple of months. Most experienced single teachers take this route, as they are then only fronting the money for one flight. However, as I’m sure you can understand, three round-trip tickets from Guangzhou to Kelowna are pretty pricey and would have set me back a significant sum until at least September. If we go through Thomas, however, the school pays for the flights directly and I am not out-of-pocket at all.
Silly me…I thought that if I arranged our flights early enough (I started in February), then I would have enough time to clarify everything with Thomas (hereinafter affectionately known as dumb-ass) and have our flights all sorted long before we were slated to depart. Prior to leaving school, I printed out the itinerary which Thomas had sent us (after months of much boring back-and-forth involving changed prices and less luggage allowance which I will not bore you with). The itinerary clearly stated that we were departing Guangzhou airport at 8:25am on June 19th. This was all that really mattered.
So we were at the airport the night prior to our departure. We had 4 big bags, 3 carry-on suitcases, a bike packed in a very large cardboard box, and hockey sticks in a canvas bag. It took 3 luggage trolleys for us to get around the airport. We went straight to the China Southern check-in desk, despite knowing that we were 15 hours early for our flight. I just wanted to see if perhaps they would allow us to check in the bike and extra bags, and to ask them if the hockey sticks could go on for free. Unfortunately the guy at check-in was unwilling to entertain my questions and instead just kept saying, “Too early! Too early! Tomorrow tomorrow!” So we made our way to the luggage consignment area and paid to store our bags overnight. We then took a shuttle to our hotel and tried to get some sleep.
We were up at 4:30am and shuttled back to the airport slightly after 5:00. By 5:30 we had our luggage and were back in line to check in. When we made it to the front, we were told that the hockey sticks were going to cost an extra $250 CDN unless we could fit them into the bike box. That was impossible (they were about 10cm too long), however we managed to procure a roll of packing tape and vigorously taped the sticks to the top of the box and I sent the kids off to the Oversize Luggage area to send it off. Meanwhile, I was told that the agent would keep our passports and boarding cards while I went to pay for our excess luggage at a different desk. I have done this before, so was not concerned. I walked over to the payment desk and handed over my credit card. As I was signing the receipt, the first agent came running over to me with a pile of boarding cards and passports and said, “Hurry hurry hurry! Come come! Now! Fast fast!” She dropped the pile of papers into my hands and started running through the crowd. I had no idea what was going on. I took off after her. As we passed the kids at the Oversize Luggage area, she again repeated, “Hurry! Hurry! Come! Fast!” so I yelled at the kids to run with us and kept chasing the lady. I was trying to ask her what was going on, but we were literally running and her English was very minimal. She rushed us to security and pushed us past everyone into the First Class line, saying “Hurry! Hurry!” over and over again. We whisked out our computers and chargers, threw off our shoes, and went through the scanners as quickly as security would allow. Once we were through, the lady pointed up a sign and said, “C-38! Hurry hurry hurry!”… so we still had no idea why, but we ran.
Arriving at gate C-38, we were dismayed to see one single man standing behind the podium and shaking his head.
“You late.” He said simply.
“WHAT? It’s only 6:23am! Look… look!” I dumped the pile of boarding cards and passports on the desk as I rifled through my bag and pulled out the flight itinerary that Dumb-Ass had sent. I found where it said, “0825” next to our flight and tapped repeatedly as I held back tears.
The man said, “No” and pointed to my boarding card (which I had not yet even looked at), which said “0645”. He said, “Gate close 6:15. You go new ticket.” and indicated back in the direction from which we had run. I begged him to let us on to the plane, but he would not budge and stopped looking at me. So we turned and hurried back down the long corridor, backwards through security, upstairs, and back to the check-in area. A few of the check-in ladies who had seen us earlier were clicking their tongues and shaking their heads. I dropped the itinerary onto one of the desks and said, “What is going on?? Our flight is not until 8:25!”
The attendant picked up the paper and looked at it and said, “ooooohhhhh!!!” before quickly spouting off a bunch of Mandarin to some other agents who all started “oooh”ing and nodding. She typed into her translator, “Now I understand! We were all wondering why you were checking in with so much luggage just 3 minutes before check-in closed. This flight was cancelled.”
Thomas Dumb-Ass.
She then told me to “wait warmly” while she re-booked us, and reassured me that despite the later arrival in Beijing, we would still be able to connect to our scheduled flight to Vancouver at 11:10am. So we went and sat down where she had indicated. Kieran and I read and played on our phones while Noémie pulled up her hoodie and had a nap. At first I was feeling pretty calm, but after an hour I was starting to get a feeling of dread because the agent had taken our passports and boarding cards and not yet returned. I looked around the area where I had seen her, but honestly there were so many people it was impossible to tell who she was. All I could remember was that she was Chinese and wearing a yellow vest… like every other airport employee in the area.
I went to the information/luggage payment desk and typed into my translator that someone was rebooking our flights and had taken our passports and I needed assistance to find her. The man behind the desk looked at my phone, said something in Mandarin to the attendant next to him, and both of them started madly typing away into their computers. I waited for about ten more minutes, during which time Kieran texted me and asked what was going on. I re-typed my query into my translator and tapped at the screen to the man behind the desk. He was very agitated and said, “We look, we look!” (Like I was supposed to know that).
Suddenly out of the blue came the long-awaited agent with our passports in hand. Once again she was running and said, “Quickly! Hurry hurry hurry!” and indicated that I should follow. I texted Kieran as I ran after her and told him to grab Noémie and come catch up. The lady ran me over to a desk with yet a different agent and the two of them started madly typing into their computers. Eventually she translated for me that there was some issue with getting Noémie’s boarding cards printed, and they only had boarding cards for me and Kieran. I let her know that we were not about to leave without Noémie, despite the fact that our next flight to Beijing was about to depart. She raced to a different agent and again they tried frantically to get the boarding cards to print. Eventually they succeeded in getting a boarding card to Beijing, but not the other 2 flights. She shoved all of the paperwork at me and said, “Come now!”
Once again, we were off…. but this time she stopped at the Oversize Luggage area. I was absolutely dismayed to see the big bike box with hockey sticks sadly dangling off the side, as well as all four of our suitcases sitting in a pile. I was told to identify them, and as I did so I grabbed a roll of packing tape and started madly taping the hockey sticks back onto the box. The agent said, “Hurryhurryhurryhurry…!!!!”
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| Notice the hockey sticks |
So we watched our luggage disappear back into the bowels of the airport and once again were whisked through First Class Security. This time the agent did not leave us to run alone, she ran us right to the gate. Which was closed. And the agents were shaking their heads. I said, “Noooo!!! PLEASE! We HAVE to get to Beijing!” and the agent started explaining something very fast in Mandarin. Reluctantly the attendants opened the strap and let us pass. As we went through, our running lady said, “No boarding card to Vancouver! You need International Transfer Desk! You say in Beijing, ‘International Transfer desk’ and they give you boarding card for daughter! Very important!” I thanked her and we boarded the plane.
Kieran and I were seated together, Noémie was somewhere far ahead of us. We were very thankful to have made the flight, and I used a lot of bad words to describe Thomas. It was only 9:15am but we had basically been stressing for almost 5 hours already.
When the flight attendant passed with the meal cart, she said, “Chicken or seafood?” We both had chicken and rice, which was a welcome meal given that we had not yet eaten anything.
We arrived in Beijing a few hours later, and our transfer time was extremely tight. We rushed off the plane as quickly as we could and looked around for anything that said “International Transfer Desk”. There was nothing obvious, and every single passenger was headed in the same direction— which appeared to be the only way we could go. We moved through the crowd until we got to a gate with a security guard who said, (you guessed it) “Boarding cards please”.
I explained that we only had 2 of 3 boarding cards and I needed to find the International Transfer Desk. She shook her head, and indicated directly behind me where there was a thick plexiglass wall. Through it, we could see some people working on computers and other passengers lined up waiting for assistance. To get there, we would have to push our way backwards through a long line of people and go around the wall and get in line. We did not have time. I looked up and saw that the wall was only about 8 feet high, so I tapped frantically on the glass until I caught the attention of one of the attendants. I plastered Noémie’s passport up to the glass, pointed at her, pointed at my boarding card, and said, “She needs a boarding card! BOARDING CARD!”
And then I threw her passport over the wall.
The surprised attendant picked it up and looked at some of the other attendants, then started typing into her computer. Less than a minute later she stepped onto a chair and dropped the passport, with boarding cards inside, back over the wall.
“THANK YOU!” I yelled, and we handed all 3 boarding cards to the security guard, who let us pass.
We went through security again and walked straight onto our next plane without even sitting down in Beijing. Again, Noémie was sitting on her own far away.
We were thrilled to finally be on our way to Vancouver, despite it being a 13-hour flight. Once again, the flight attendant passed with a cart and said, “Chicken or seafood?” and once again, Kieran and I ate chicken and rice. We spent the next 6-8 hours in and out of sleep, movies, wandering the aisles, and just trying to stay comfortable. We were slated to land at about 9:00am Vancouver time, and towards the end of the flight the meal cart was coming down the aisle again. Kieran said, “If they offer chicken or seafood again I think I’ll pass…”
I said, “No they won’t do that. It’s morning time here. It’s probably breakfast-type things like a croissant and fruit and coffee or something.”
The flight attendant stopped next to me and smiled. “Chicken or seafood?”
I just shook my head.
Kieran had more chicken and rice. He did groan a bit.
As we landed in Vancouver (YAY!!!) Kieran asked me what time our flight to Kelowna would be. I said, “I should double-check, but grandma is picking us up at 1:15pm and I think we have only 2-3 hours before we have to be at our next gate. I think we leave at around noon….”
He pointed at the boarding card I pulled out, most of which was written in Chinese.
“What does that 1845 mean?”
“Hmm. not sure… couldn’t be our gate, as they wouldn’t have known that yet. Maybe it’s the flight number?”
He pointed at the corner, where the Air Canada flight number was clearly marked.
Suddenly I had another feeling of dread.
Thomas dumb-ass.
Yep… I Googled our flight number and sure enough, we had been bumped to an evening flight that was landing in Kelowna at 8:00pm. We officially had an 8-hour unexpected layover.
Oh well. This allowed us time to stand at the luggage carousel and pick up all of the luggage that the attendants in Guangzhou had assured me were checked straight through to Kelowna. I knew very well that this would not be the case… so we grabbed our 3 luggage trolleys and were amused that the hockey sticks were still just barely dangling on to the top of the bike box. We had to take everything upstairs to the domestic terminal and it was such a relief when the Air Canada representative said, “What are those hockey sticks doing taped to a box?! Here’s a luggage tag, they can be checked for free.” We were home!
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| Beautiful Vancouver |
Despite our exhaustion, we decided to catch the Canada Line into Vancouver just to kill time. We put our carry-on bags into storage and zipped into False Creek. Everything seemed so clean and clear. We all noticed pickup trucks everywhere… that was the first time I realized that there are no pickup trucks in China. We saw Science World all decorated like a Fifa soccer ball, and we went to a fantastic Israeli place for lunch and ate delicious shawarmas. With still 4 hours to kill and in a state of complete exhaustion, we were at a bit of a loss for what to do. Noémie mentioned that she needed some new shorts, and Kieran needed a few items as well, so we decided to go to the outlet mall in Richmond near the airport. However, by the time we got there we were all so completely zonked that none of us had energy or desire to shop. We wandered around in a daze and then ultimately decided to go back to the airport. Those last few hours passed really slowly, and our last flight was 40 minutes delayed.
By the time we FINALLY landed in Kelowna, we were all delirious. It was after 9pm. So, so wonderful to see my mom! We made it home to the lake around 11:30pm and slept SO well.
Our summer was wonderful. I felt so spoiled. It was more or less 5 weeks at the lake in beautiful weather surrounded by family (including our dog, Cleo!) and way too much good food.
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| Fiona and Anami in Kimberley |
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| Best Mom in the World |
Then 2 weeks later my mom spoiled me with 2 days of Sparkling Hills spa, trail walks and lunch with Cathy and Fiona at a winery.
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| Cathy, Fiona and Mom |
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| Sparkling Hills |
Steeves came to visit from Fort McMurray, Suzie arranged an awesome whitewater rafting day on the Illecillewaet river for us with Dave and Tariq, and Kristin put together an absolutely STELLAR hike to Assiniboine for 4 days. On my very last morning before going to the airport I was thrown a very special surprise brunch surrounded by cousins, siblings, aunts, uncles and my parents and kids— mostly orchestrated by Noémie. As most of you will know, she put together a beautiful book full of letters and pictures from so many of my very special people. I was crying my eyes out and couldn’t read it right then— but it is absolutely treasured.
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| Cathy! |
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| Home |
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| Suze, Dave, Tariq and Awesomeness |
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| Takakkaw |
We were staying in a Naiset hut, which had two double bunk beds. There was a big separate cooking cabin with stoves and dishes, so fortunately we didn’t have to pack in a lot of gear.
On our second day we hiked another 18km to the Niblet peak (others went on to the Nub, even higher) and Kieran and Oliver went and hiked Wonder Pass. Our second day had us walking about 12km around crystal blue mountain lakes surrounded by wild flowers.
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| Kris and Brit |
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| Cousins! |
Kieran opted to stay in Canada for his grade 10 year. He is happier there and our life here in China did really not suit him.
I left on July 30th and my friend Suzie drove me the 2 hours to Kelowna, where I had booked a hotel room because my flight the following day (according to Dumb-Ass Thomas…. remember him?) was to depart at 5:25am.
In case you’re wondering, yes. Here we go again.
I asked the hotel to arrange a taxi to come pick me up at 3:30am, which they did. I was at the airport by 3:40, and was surprised (clearly I should not have been, given Thomas’ track record) that there was no one else waiting to check in for my flight.
Soon thereafter I was informed that my flight had been cancelled— did I not get the memo? It was sent to everyone who booked a ticket. I said, “That would be the travel agent”.
The Air Canada rep said, “Yes, it went out yesterday. Did your travel agent not tell you?”
I said, “No. Because the level of incompetence of the travel agent I was forced to do business with is seriously underrated.” She looked at me blankly before informing me that I had been rescheduled to 8:30. Sigh. 5 hours. OK.
I picked up my suitcase and put it on the scale.
She said, “No… umm… it is WAY too early to check your luggage.”
Oh no.
Not again.
The feeling of dread.
I said, “It’s less than 5 hours from now. Do I have to wait a couple more?”
She said, “Oh no no no… 8:30 PM.” She tapped at the boarding card which said “2030”.
My jaw dropped.
I said, “You must be kidding. I have to get to Guangzhou. I will miss both of my connections this way!”
She said, “Oh no don’t worry. We have re-routed you so that you can have a direct flight from Vancouver and it will only arrive 6 hours later than anticipated.”
I glanced around the terminal. There was hardly anyone there. Lots of neon lights and flashing signs. A closed Tim Horton’s. A janitor polishing the floor. Some empty seats.
I had paid $30 to the taxi, which of course was gone. And I had dropped my hotel keys through the slot at the hotel. My bed was 2 hours away by car and I had no car. I could not call anyone at 4:00am.
I dragged my luggage over to the seats in the arrival area and tried to lie down, propping my neck pillow under my head. I put my arm over my eyes and pretended that I was almost anywhere else. It was useless. Eventually I wandered back over to the counter, vowing to myself that I would not cry in front of this woman who was absolutely not to blame for this mishap. I choked out, “Umm…. is there some sort of compensation for this? I mean, could I get a hotel room maybe?”
She said that a food voucher was all she could offer (ugh) and that I could register for compensation on the Air Canada 3 days after my flight was over.
I texted my family and Suzie.
Hallelujah that Suze is an early riser— at 6:30 she called me and said that her work was cancelled for the day because of the smoke, and she was on her way to save me! She came and picked me up, and took me to her friend’s house nearby… who had graciously offered for us to hang out there and use his pool. It was a beautiful clear day in Kelowna despite the smoke in Salmon Arm, and we floated and hung out and ate some yummy food with lovely people. It actually turned out to be a great day.
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| The Day Suzie Saved me from Airport Purgatory |
I told Suzie that to thank her I was going to buy her sushi, so we headed out to grab a few last-minute things at London Drugs and go for dinner. As we returned to the car from London Drugs I received a flight update (not from Dumb-Ass of course…. I had given my phone number to the lady at the airport)— they had rescheduled my flight to 10:00pm. UGH.
Oh well. We were parked as I fiddled with my phone to navigate us to the restaurant, when another flight update came through. I was re-booked for the following morning at 0525.
“Oh no. No. NO!!” I freaked out. “I can’t! I’ll miss my first day back! They can’t delay me for 24 hours! What is going on?!”
Suz contacted her partner Guy who is a helicopter pilot, and I was put on hold with Air Canada— while the recorded voice informed me that my call was very important and that due to high call volumes my anticipated wait time would be approximately TWO HOURS.
I asked Suzie to just drive me back to the airport so that I could deal with them in person.
She dropped me off at the entrance and I left my luggage in the car while I went straight up to the Air Canada desk and explained my situation. They tapped away on their computer and were very surprised that “the system” had not put me onto the 6:00pm flight to Vancouver which would connect me well with that dirt flight to Guangzhou. A few clicks later and I was booked. I texted Suzie who came in with my luggage, and I was off!
My flights back here were rather uneventful. I arrived early Sunday morning and busied myself to stay awake in my new apartment. My “ayi” had done a beautiful job of cleaning, making my bed, and putting things away in the kitchen. The plants were alive. I ordered groceries on my phone and they were here in half an hour. Within a few hours, multiple boxes were unpacked, closets were filled, and it started to feel like my own. This arrival was so, so SO different from last year— when the kids and I were dropped into a filthy apartment with rock-hard beds and no food.
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| My Chinese birthday party |
On Monday I was back at work and we pretty much had a week of boring meetings, photos, and paperwork. My friend Tali eagerly remembered my real birthday that Thursday and arranged a lovely night out at an English Pub called “The Happy Monk” with about 12 of my friends. They brought me a cake and once again, I felt very fortunate to have such amazing people in my life.
Noémie arrived the following weekend (I had texted DumbAss 3 times to ask him to confirm her flights but he still has not responded)— thankfully I watched every flight path and texted her at each layover to make sure that all was going as planned. She made it home late Saturday night. Her grade 12 year is underway and she is happy to be here.
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| Noémie and her friend Raphaëlle |
School so far has started off well. Tomorrow we start our third week. I have mostly small classes, and am teaching grades 3, 4 and 5 Music as well as working on the English as an Additional Language (EAL) team. We have a new principal (Canadian!) named Ben, and so far the other new staff members seem really nice. My schedule is light at the moment, but I know that it will fill up.
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| Ramon and me on a sweaty walk |
We went out for Turkish food on Friday, and yesterday we went for a very hot and sweaty walk in the hills behind my apartment. This morning we met downtown for dim sum and ate a feast.
And here we are… Sunday night already. Time is flying. Kieran seems to be doing well in Canada despite the smoky last few weeks. He’s doing lots of biking and is looking forward to being back with his buddies at a school where everyone speaks his languages.
That’s it for this one!
xox
Love
Shannon
